Monday, April 19, 2010

Just a heads up - if I sound a little lackluster today, it's because my class is kicking my ass, and I had to leave for work at 6 AM today to get here by 7 AM, so I'm kind of running on one piston. It's definitely got nothing to do with the brand we're going to take a peek at today!

What brand is that? Well, dahlinks, today I'd like to blab at you about some amazing stuff that I'm sure everyone is either using or has heard about - Philosophy! You've either seen their fabulous goodies over at Sephora, on QVC, or at some of their new counters at Macy's. Frankly, they have so much stuff that feels wonderful, smells good, and just plain gives you a boost, that I could blog about them for a year and not cover all their products. So today, our Product Spotlight is going to be about their skincare, which I just switched over to, lock, stock and barrel!

So, I'm 46, you know? I do my best to keep everything glued together and hoisted to the sky, as we all do. But here's the thing - I'm terrified, freaking TERRIFIED, of even the idea of plastic surgery, Botox, all that freaky crap. I won't even consider it - which means I'd better get used to spending all of my disposable income for the best skincare I can afford, amiright?

Last week, I knew I needed a boost of some sort for the ol' faccia (which isItalian for "face" - see that? It's not just ramblings about bunnies and lipstick - you're *learning* something!). So I hopped into Sephora, and headed straight for the Philosophy area. Without giving it too much thought since I know it's a great and reasonably priced brand, I just grabbed this little gem off the shelf:

This is their simply awesome Advanced Makeup Optional Kit for Aging Skin. Their Makeup Optional kits are pretty popular, so when I saw this, I knew I had to try it. It's mini versions of everything you see here - Hope in Jar with SPF 20 moisturizer, When Hope is Not Enough firming serum, Help Me nighttime retinol cream, The Microdelivery Exfoliating facial wash for morning, and Purity Made Simple facial wash for nighttime.

Can I just tell you something amazing with absolutely no exaggeration, swear to god? I've now been using this kit for about a week and a half - and I look like I've had work done. And not in a bad way! My skin is totally smoothed out, the pores are smaller, the flakiness and ruddiness is gone! The tone is brighter, the lines have decreased - you guys, I can't even believe it! Even with other really great brands I've tried, I've never seen results that fast. It's amazing, it honestly and really is!

And you don't have to be all middle-aged and stuff like me - the great thing about Philosophy is that they make a little "try it" kit for all skin types - younger, older, oilier, dryer, normal. There's nothing you won't be able to find that doesn't work for you. And I'll bet you'll see results so fast that you're going to want the big sizes of everything in here, no doubt.

The only thing missing from the kit is an eye cream, and since I needed one anyway, I decided to take the leap and go with Philosophy's anti-aging stuff called Eye Hope (*Rimshot!* Thank you folks, thank you - the people who think up cute names for Philosophy products will be here all week! Don't forget to tip your waitress!) Anyway, this stuff...

... this stuff right here! - is a little pump bottle full of awesomeness. The lines disappear, it's not greasy, your eye makeup goes on smoothly. And best of all, if you use this stuff, no crazed surgeon will have to come near your delicate eyeballs with a knife, laser or needle for years to come (Gaaaah! I just freaked me out!).

So check it out! High tail it over to Sephora or Macy's, or Philosophy's website (www.philosophy.com), or QVC.com, and go get some great, cruelty-free skincare for your ownselves!

Friday, April 2, 2010

Happy Easter and Passover, youse guyses! Although technically, there are usually only bunnies for Easter, you know that around here, you're all my bunnies!

Okay, so I'm willing to call a truce. A big, fat, booty-shaking (which would be terrifying if you could see it - WHOOT!) truce with Bare Escentuals.

If you remember my blog from January 15th, I had just found out that our beloved cruelty-free Bare Escentuals had been purchased by Shiseido, a company that still very much tests. This would make BE a non-animal testing subsidiary of a parent company that tests. And again, whether or not you decide to use a CF product from a parent company that tests is totally up to your individual comfort level. For me? Generally, I stay away, because it just bugs me too much.

But you know, I've been a BE whore since 2004, so it's hard to give that up. So in one of my moments of "Grumble... grumble... well, okay, lemme just check..." I did a little more homework. I emailed BE directly and laid it all out for them (oh, dudes, complete with drama! I would have rivaled Halle Berry's Oscar speech in that email!). They assured me that they absolutely will continue to be cruelty-free, not only with their established products, but with any new ones as well. Now as you know, many companies who claim to put a moratorium on animal testing will promise to do so only for their established products, but will continue testing on any new ones they develop. Which, to my way of thinking is still animal testing no matter what they do. So the promise that BE will continue to remain CF even on their new stuff went quite a long way towards restoring my faith in them.

The other thing I noticed is that PETA still has BE listed on their "Does Not Test on Animals" list - and that's always pretty important to me, since they have such a comprehensive guide about this stuff. So all of this is my round about way of saying that I still love me some Bare Escentuals, and that as long as they maintain a completely cruelty free stance, I can live with this!

So it's all good...

...we hugged it out, bitches!

Have a happy holiday, no matter how or what you celebrate, and I'll be back to bother you soon enough! Clearly, I love me some mineral makeup, and I have another very fun brand, Meow Cosmetics, that I'm planning on shining the spotlight on in my next blog or so!

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I live and work in the NYC area in your basic, run-of-the-mill office job. On the side, I dabble in paint, pastels, and photography, and I could research who does and doesn't test on animals for hours. I get a really weird kind of satisfaction out of it. (I could also research fun facts about Def Leppard for hours, but we won't go into that here. That's for my own amusement.)